US says around 1,000 Americans still in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The US State Department says it is tracking roughly 1,000 American citizens whom it believes may still be in Afghanistan, as evacuation efforts proceed, despite deadly suicide attacks outside the Kabul airport.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said yesterday that some 1,500 US citizens were still thought to be in the country, but the department says today that it confirms that about 500 of them had been evacuated.

In the meantime, it says another 500 people claiming to be Americans wanting to leave have gotten in touch with the US embassy, but that it expects the majority of them would turn out not to be US citizens. Of the 1,000 Americans the department believes to be in Afghanistan, it says about 75 percent are making preparations to leave.